Digital BW, The Print

I have been reading the posts in this forum for a year but have heard
very little about the IJC/OPM software.  Is anyone using this on a
1280 or other Epson printer?  Is it easy to install and run?  Are you
happy with the result?  Any input would be most appreciated?

Perry

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "pjmcneal" 
<pjmcneal@m...> wrote:
> 
> I have been reading the posts in this forum for a year but have 
heard
> very little about the IJC/OPM software.  Is anyone using this on a
> 1280 or other Epson printer?  Is it easy to install and run?  Are 
you
> happy with the result?  Any input would be most appreciated?
> 
> Perry

Hi Perry

Yes I'm using IJC/OPM on a Mac / Epson 2100 with OEM inks. Its a 
great product. I can only speak for Mac platform, but installation 
was a breeze. It is very easy to use, with a simple clean GUI. The 
B&W I'm getting are great. I am also a registered user of Roys QTR, 
which produces excellent B&W prints. The big difference for me 
between the two products is that IJC/OPM has a better user interface 
and tweaking profiles seems easier to me. Printing is via OPM, very 
simple to use, and is a standalone program. IJC is the profile maker 
and tweaking program.

Great product.

Poorly promoted.

They need a demo version for people to try !!

However I parted with my $250 and am very pleased with the software. 
It only lacks one thing. It could do with a really good turorial on 
curve design for the novice.

Hope this helps.

Peter

Hi Peter;

A question for you as a user of both QTR and IJC if I may: Are you 
working in 16-bit all the way through for IJC? If so, can you see 
any differences in the quality of your IJC prints versus the QTR 
prints that you can attribute to staying in 16-bit all the way 
through?  

Thanks

Steven Karafyllakis




> 
> Yes I'm using IJC/OPM on a Mac / Epson 2100 with OEM inks. Its a 
> great product. I can only speak for Mac platform, but installation 
> was a breeze. It is very easy to use, with a simple clean GUI. The 
> B&W I'm getting are great. I am also a registered user of Roys 
QTR, 
> which produces excellent B&W prints. The big difference for me 
> between the two products is that IJC/OPM has a better user 
interface 
> and tweaking profiles seems easier to me. Printing is via OPM, 
very 
> simple to use, and is a standalone program. IJC is the profile 
maker 
> and tweaking program.
> 
> Great product.
> 
> Poorly promoted.
> 
> They need a demo version for people to try !!
> 
> However I parted with my $250 and am very pleased with the 
software. 
> It only lacks one thing. It could do with a really good turorial 
on 

> curve design for the novice.
> 
> Hope this helps.
> 
> Peter

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Steven 
Karafyllakis" <steve@s...> wrote:
> 
> 
> Hi Peter;
> 
> A question for you as a user of both QTR and IJC if I may: Are you 
> working in 16-bit all the way through for IJC? If so, can you see 
> any differences in the quality of your IJC prints versus the QTR 
> prints that you can attribute to staying in 16-bit all the way 
> through?  
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Steven Karafyllakis

Hi Steven
I use 16 bit all the way through my workflow, and I honestly cannot 
see any difference in print quality at the moment. However I am quite 
new to IJC/OPM. I'm planning on purchasing a densitometer, so I can 
linearize the profiles I am using. This process in IJC is very 
straight forward. It will be interesting if I can see any difference 
in print quality once the profiles have been linearized for my 
printer.

Peter
> 
> 
> 
> 
> > 
> > Yes I'm using IJC/OPM on a Mac / Epson 2100 with OEM inks. Its a 
> > great product. I can only speak for Mac platform, but 
installation 
> > was a breeze. It is very easy to use, with a simple clean GUI. 
The 

> > B&W I'm getting are great. I am also a registered user of Roys 
> QTR, 
> > which produces excellent B&W prints. The big difference for me 
> > between the two products is that IJC/OPM has a better user 
> interface 
> > and tweaking profiles seems easier to me. Printing is via OPM, 
> very 
> > simple to use, and is a standalone program. IJC is the profile 
> maker 
> > and tweaking program.
> > 
> > Great product.
> > 
> > Poorly promoted.
> > 
> > They need a demo version for people to try !!
> > 
> > However I parted with my $250 and am very pleased with the 
> software. 
> > It only lacks one thing. It could do with a really good turorial 
> on 
> > curve design for the novice.
> > 
> > Hope this helps.
> > 
> > Peter

Hi Perry,

This is Peter from Pittsburgh (not to be confused with the other 
Peter who responded to your post earlier). I've been using IJC/OPM 
with great success on my Epson 1280 for about six months now. 

When I decided I needed more control over the profiling of my output 
device than I could get from the PiezoBW ICC/iQuads system, I went 
searching for a solution. I definitely wanted to continue using my 
existing papers and especially the Piezotone Warm Neutral ink. I 
also wanted the ability to do the profiling in-house rather than 
rely on a third party. I considered moving up to a larger format 
printer and a high-end RIP but then realized I could achieve the 
results I wanted with my existing printer and either QTR or IJC/OPM. 
My final decision came down to ease of installation and ease of use. 
IJC/OPM has a very elegant and intuitive user interface. 

Anyway, here are some observations:

1.  I use an X-Rite 810 densitometer for the linerization process. 
It works exactly as expected. I have no experience with using the 
scanner-based linerization method.

2.  When I printed out the Test Patches target, I used a loupe to 
identify the "dottiness" characteristics of each ink position. Then 
I used an existing Piezotone profile and modified it to a) minimize 
the appearance of dots in the 70-90% range and b) to more closely 
match the Aims. I'm not entirely sure this last part was necessary 
since the software automatically creates a linearized profile, but I 
figured the closer I could get my curves, the less adjustment would 
be required by the software so it seemed like a good idea.

3.  I've been using some form of B&W digital printing technology for 
3-4 years now. When I switched to IJC/OPM, my days of continual 
fiddling were over. Now I just print.

Regards,
Peter.




--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "pjmcneal" 
<pjmcneal@m...> wrote:
> 
> I have been reading the posts in this forum for a year but have 
heard
> very little about the IJC/OPM software.  Is anyone using this on a
> 1280 or other Epson printer?  Is it easy to install and run?  Are 
you

> happy with the result?  Any input would be most appreciated?
> 
> Perry

Perry,

I have been a beta tester and have had a great deal of input on the
development of IJC/OPM from its very beginnings. I have also been
a happy user for the last 2 years or so, having printed for portfolios
or - recently - for a whole show. My remarks here come from that
perspective - though I don't have a business relationship with Bowhaus.

My guess is that you hear more on the list about software that is
in development and people report problems that are later resolved.
IJC or OPM hasn't had most of the problems I read about on the list.
For example, OPM doesn't have USB communication issues. The new
PC version manages to deal with USB with almost as seamless a manner
as the Mac version. 

On the other hand, IJC/OPM has a cost that is higher than QTR (shareware),
or Paul's RGB curves (free), so naturally, people try the least costly 
method first. I have seen very good results with both of these solutions.
I have made perfectly good prints with QTR, and I have seen Paul
Roark's excellent prints, done with his method. So, its very tempting
to avoid paying the price for IJC/OPM.

My own reason for adopting IJC/OPM is that it gives me an
efficient, versatile way to make or tweak profiles on the fly. These days
with so many options of inks, papers and printers, I find myself wanting
to try new products, or simply fine tune profiles for a specific project.
I am sure I could do it for the  thousands that a full-fledged RIP would
cost, but why spend the money when I get all the control I need for
bw printing with IJC/OPM?

I am not saying that IJC/OPM is necessarily for everyone or that it
is absolutely flawless. It's a pretty complete toolbox for printing bw and
that means some degree of complexity that not everyone is up for. 
Many people would rather not deal with making profiles, and that's
perfectly understandable, too. I come from the dark days of the
bw photoshop plug-in which stopped being useful to me as soon
as new inks and papers appeared. I then decided that the only
software that would interest me is one that offers complete control
over how the printer lays ink down and doesn't depend on canned
profiles.

Another part of the reason you don't hear much about it is that IJC/OPM
has not been promoted or advertised, perhaps until now when the PC
version has just been released. It is the brainchild of one person, Joe Bernd,
and sold as part of the BowHaus line of products. For the most part it
has been a labor of love, with development being possible whenever
time allowed and without the resources of a large software company.

Thanks to the enthusiasm of many users - either beta testers like myself.
or end users - development has continued in response to feedback
and the product has reached an amazing level of sophistication
in its present release (for the PC). I'm sure it will continue to evolve
and new requests or bug reports will be addressed as they have for
some time now.  But development may not be as rapid as we would 
all wish. Still, I think that it represents the best effort in bw printing software
- certainly the best bang for the buck - and that's why I have put in
seemingly hundreds of (unpaid) hours to help out  in the development
effort.

Since you are asking about the 1280 - yes, I have used it with the 1280
as well as the 1160, 2200, 7000 and 9500. It also supports the 4000
7600, 9600 but I don't own those. 
You can read more at the Bowhaus site, where there are interviews 
with photographers using it - and among them an interview with me.

http://www.bowhaus.com/


Antonis




--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "pjmcneal" <pjmcneal@m...> 
wrote:

> 
> I have been reading the posts in this forum for a year but have heard
> very little about the IJC/OPM software.  Is anyone using this on a
> 1280 or other Epson printer?  Is it easy to install and run?  Are you
> happy with the result?  Any input would be most appreciated?
> 
> Perry